"Watch The Road" warnings keep going off.

We might have figured out what is wrong. My dad was sitting way too low in the seat. I was like you're not that much taller than me but I have to raise a seat about 2 to 3 inches compared to you. So he tried it and the system goes off a lot less.

When I first got the truck, the 'watch the road' warning, followed by BlueCruise disengaging, happened constantly and was driving me crazy. I was looking with a dead stare at the license plate in front of me and it would still go off. I couldn't figure how I could 'watch the road' more intently than that. After a few weeks, and almost giving up entirely on using BlueCruise, I stopped looking with a fixated stare and just normally looked at different things generally in front of me, and the problem completely stopped. Every once in awhile if I'm looking too constantly at one thing for an extended period the warning will come on, but as soon as I move my gaze a little the warning immediately stops. I guess the system thinks if you don't move your gaze and have a fixed stare ahead, you've gone catatonic......

I’ve been meaning to post about this.
I was having intermittent issues with the “watch the road” messages.
I finally figured out what was going on, at least for me.
I generally wear contacts, but I have 2 pairs of glasses that will wear occasionally instead.
I realized I was getting the issue, whenever I wore the 1 pair of glasses that have “transitions” lenses (the self darkening when you go outside) in them. The sensors apparently has a hard time seeing through those lenses, even though they can see through regular sunglasses just fine.

If I forget and wear them on a road trip, I have to open my open REALLY big, and it finally sees my eye.

SunnySunshine said:

We had our 2024 Ford Expedition Platinum for around 1 month now. I've only driven it twice (my dad does most of the driving). When BlueCruise or Lane Keeping is on, it would frequently alert my dad to "Watch The Road" and most of the time it goes into "Resume Control" followed by brake checking. My dad is watching the road... It doesn't seem to happen all the time, but it is happening half the time. It is getting very annoying and actually becoming a distraction and a safety issue because it is going off every minute or 2 when it does. Anyone else have the issue? It didn't seem to happen the 2 times I drove it, but but dad is a lot bigger (fatter) than I am and he sits quite a ways back from the steering wheel.

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That warning message is misleading. What it really means is move the steering a little. If you are using Adaptive Cruise with Lane Centering and you have done a good job of keeping it right with the lane centering, the system will think you are not holding the steering wheel. If you nudge the steering wheel just a little it gives that response to the system letting it know that you are in control. By the way, the time in between is 15 seconds if you were curious.

SunnySunshine said:

It happens a lot less during the day on my dad, and usually doesn't reach the brake checking stage (it might prompt to look). Night time/dusk is the issue.

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The sun does affect the sensor which is why you are seeing it at sunrise and sunset. My Lightning would so that if I was driving into the sunrise.

blznweels said:

I’ve been meaning to post about this.
I was having intermittent issues with the “watch the road” messages.
I finally figured out what was going on, at least for me.
I generally wear contacts, but I have 2 pairs of glasses that will wear occasionally instead.
I realized I was getting the issue, whenever I wore the 1 pair of glasses that have “transitions” lenses (the self darkening when you go outside) in them. The sensors apparently has a hard time seeing through those lenses, even though they can see through regular sunglasses just fine.

If I forget and wear them on a road trip, I have to open my open REALLY big, and it finally sees my eye.

Click to expand...

I suspect the transitions is part of the problem too. The pair I wear doesn't change colours but his does. Moving his seat up a little seems to have fixed most of the issue.

fordvideoguy said:

That warning message is misleading. What it really means is move the steering a little. If you are using Adaptive Cruise with Lane Centering and you have done a good job of keeping it right with the lane centering, the system will think you are not holding the steering wheel. If you nudge the steering wheel just a little it gives that response to the system letting it know that you are in control. By the way, the time in between is 15 seconds if you were curious.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately that is "Keep hands on wheel". It doesn't work when it can't detect your eyes. Either way, it seems most of the issue was just with my dad sitting too low. We just came from a 2006 Honda Pilot, and I think these American cars are designed for bigger and taller people, so he had to move his seating position up a little bit (he never had to do that before at 5'10").

fordvideoguy said:

That warning message is misleading. What it really means is move the steering a little.

Click to expand...

That's only for 'regular' BlueCruise, if hands-free is not engaged.